Erotic Haiku Winners

by Olivia Knight

Masses of thanks to everyone who deluged us with their pithy, hot haikus for the Midsummer Erotic Haiku Competition. Predictably, with 87 poems to choose from, the judges waved wine glasses and shouted a lot, but we agreed on a few things. Firstly, that erotic haikus should...

• be formally impeccable
• condense as much as possible, without wasting a single syllable
• suggest a landscape of story behind their few words
• evoke strong sensory experiences

We also agreed on a winner (although not what she won for!), but beyond that, opinions varied wildly - and strongly. Poetry is a very personal choice - so rather than pick at random from the short list, we've decided to recognise that, and recognise all the haikus that struck us in the solar plexus, or slightly lower down. Accordingly, second and third prizes have been divvied up, with an extra copy of Magic and Desire thrown in, for the seven runner-up prizes...

Runner-up prizes
• 3 copies of Magic and Desire by Portia da Costa, Janine Ashbless, and Olivia Knight
• 2 copies of Southern Spirits by Edie Bingham
• Gothic Heat by Portia da Costa
• Phantamagoria by Madelynne Ellis

And the runners up, in alphabetical order, are...

Amanda, for making us twinge with hurts-but-good bliss and making our pink bits hot and cold at the same time:

cool summer relief
a banana cocksicle
cherry cunt ice cream

anon at 2:42am, for being so contrary & wrapping it up in so little space:

My flesh red and raw
My pleasure bound up in pain
Happy is my heart.

Kammie, for making us lean back lazily in the heat, spread our legs, and lick our lips:

Summer flesh exposed
Plentiful, available
Lick a little peach

magdalune, for capturing that intensely intimate moment of indecision and instruction, and the ecstasy hot on its heels:

Such lovely cheeks. No -
Not there. Here. And between them.
You writhe in pleasure.

Maryanne Stahl, for two reasons, both of them sensory in the very literal sense, making our skin feel and our tongues taste:

Crisp white linen sheets
Your lips, neck, shoulders, open thighs
You taste of warm salt

Rain in pine forest
We fall to the sodden ground
Dripping everywhere

tls, for giving us an entire personality dynamic, and for the line break between "Your cock is a thing" and "of beauty"

Your cock is a thing
of beauty. The one reason
I'll get on my knees.

... and venivincere, for the love, the m/m, and giving us the sensation not only of having cocks, but having a cock and someone else's against it:

Love makes one of two:
Grinding velvet cock on cock
Melds with searing come.

The winner gets a stupefying 9 books, so perhaps it's fair that we ended up awarding them for two different haikus - both on the top of our lists, and both - as it turned out - by the same person: Eden Hail, who thought poetry wasn't her cup of tea. Eden gets... • Magic and Desire by Portia da Costa, Janine Ashbless, and Olivia Knight • Southern Spirits by Edie Bingham • Gothic Heat by Portia da Costa • Phantamagoria by Madelynne Ellis • Chilli Heat by Carrie Williams • Standish by Erastes • Hotbed by Portia da Costa • Amanda’s Young Men by Madeline Moore... and • Cruel Enchantment by Janine Ashbless

Each haiku was a picture in considerably less than 1000 words. The first, a post-coital snapshot, gives enough material for a week of bed-time fantasies as you play out the story of what went before, building up to the final moment of photorealism:

paint stuck in her hair
Charcoal smudged on her fair cheek
Sated nude model

The second combined two different sense-images: touch and sound: intense touch of cold hard tiles; sound of cries rising and ringing around the ceramics. Another story offers itself in the background, of course - why they're there...

Your body behind
Pushes me onto cool tiles
Echoes grow louder

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All winners, please email your snail-mail details to knight [dot] olivia [at] gmail [dot] com so I can send you your books. Runners-up, let me know which book you'd prefer, and I'll do what I can to see you get it (no promises, mind!) And for those who didn't win, you can award yourself a prize by following the links to Amazon...

• Magic and Desire by Portia da Costa, Janine Ashbless, and Olivia Knight
• Southern Spirits by Edie Bingham
• Gothic Heat by Portia da Costa
• Phantamagoria by Madelynne Ellis
• Chilli Heat by Carrie Williams
• Standish by Erastes
• Hotbed by Portia da Costa
• Amanda’s Young Men by Madeline Moore
• Cruel Enchantment by Janine Ashbless

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Midsummer Erotic Haiku Competition

~ Winners announced 1 July 2008, here ~

by Olivia Knight

Heaped erotic books,
Slow days and hot nights: petals
on a firm flesh bough

With seventeen beats –
Five-seven-five – you force our
Gasps: come, take your prize.

Multiple offerings:
Brief, fierce, repeated stabs at
Mastering our small form.

Riding generous waves
We offer our gifts to you
Again and again.

Or, in plain old prose: look at the lovely books! Dazzle us with your erotic haikus to win them! All of them! You can try as many times as you like! We’re so generous we have three prizes, for first, second and third place!

The rules:
• All haikus must have 17 syllables: 5 in the first line, 7 in the second line, 5 in the third line. No breaking words up across lines! That's syllables, not words, mind: erotic has 3 syllables; haiku has 2 syllables; prize has 1 syllable.
• Write as many haikus as you like: the prizes will be for individual haikus.
• Spoof and joke haikus are welcome. They might even win.
• If anyone says “tis” “tween” or other naffisms, I will shoot them. This isn’t a Lust Bites rule, just my own homicidal tendencies.
• The competition will be open until Friday 27 June; winners will be announced in Coming Attractions on Tuesday 1 July.

The prizes:

First prize
• Magic and Desire by Portia da Costa, Janine Ashbless, and Olivia Knight
• Southern Spirits by Edie Bingham
• Gothic Heat by Portia da Costa
• Phantamagoria by Madelynne Ellis
• Chilli Heat by Carrie Williams
• Standish by Erastes
• Hotbed by Portia da Costa
• Amanda’s Young Men by Madeline Moore
• Cruel Enchantment by Janine Ashbless

Second prize
• Magic and Desire by Portia da Costa, Janine Ashbless, and Olivia Knight
• Southern Spirits by Edie Bingham
• Gothic Heat by Portia da Costa
• Phantamagoria by Madelynne Ellis

Third prize
• Magic and Desire by Portia da Costa, Janine Ashbless, and Olivia Knight
• Southern Spirits by Edie Bingham

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Technovirgin? Here's what to do!
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